Did you know?

Do different types of calories matter?

A calorie is roughly the amount of food energy it takes a 150 pound person to burn over the course of one minute while resting.

Calories come from different sources; mainly carbs, fat, sugar, and protein. They will all have similar effects on your weight, as long as you're eating the same amount of calories.

For example: If you were to eat 1000 calories from a donut, or 1000 calories from broccoli, the increase in your weight should theoretically end up being the same by the next day.

However, there are two things to consider aside from comparing calories from different foods:

1. The nutritional value of the food
2. The speed of digestion

Calories from Bad Carbs: Refined Flour and Sugar

We're referring to easily digested, starchy carbs such as white bread, pasta, potatoes, donuts, or french fries. The quick digestion causes a rapid spike in blood sugar in comparison to calories from other foods.

The rapid spike in glucose also causes a rapid surge in your body's insulin, which controls blood sugar. By the way, this is one reason why overweight people end up with diabetes.

Next, the glucose gets absorbed into your muscles, as glycogen, and then immediately stored as fat afterwards. To add insult to injury, your body starts sending out hunger signals, and guess what....

You end up eating again!

Eating simple, refined carbs and sugars can make you fat right away, because they digest too fast and leave you feeling tired and hungry again.

Calories from Saturated Fat

As you probably know, the Atkins diet promotes fatty foods that are high in protein too, but eliminates carbs altogether. While this is partially a good idea since you're at least cutting out the 'bad carbs', there's one thing you have to keep in mind:

Eating a diet loaded with fatty foods such as bacon, sausage, and other red meats will have a terrible toll on your health, even if you are losing pounds from the slowly digestive Atkins diet. If you want to die of a heart attack early in life or develop heart disease, this would be the diet for you.

In all fairness, Atkins was partially right with his weight loss plan, in regards to cutting out the bad carbs.

The Best Strategy

For weight loss and optimal health, the best strategy would be to avoid fatty foods and eat a diet that consists of only the right kinds of fats and carbs - whole grain products, beans, nuts, fruits, vegetables, lean poultry and fish, and basically everything in the 'Mr. Healthy Diet Guidelines'.

The slow digestive quality of these complex carbohydrates help keep you full, and since you're not pigging out on saturated fat, you're also keeping your body healthy.

For further reference, be sure to check out the articles listed below.

Switching to Whole Grain

Mr. Healthy recommends that all white flour products in your diet be substituted with whole grain.

Mr. Healthy's Diet Guidelines

Basic Guidelines For Mr. Healthy's Diet

The Power of Juicing

If you're not juicing fruits and vegetables each day, you're missing out.

Why is Breakfast so important?

You've probably heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but do you know why?

5 Tips for Rapid Weight Loss

Have you ever needed to drop a few pounds in a short time period? With these 5 tips, you can rapidly lose weight without starving yourself.

The Truth About Diet Pills

Diet Pills seem like the ultimate shortcut to losing weight. But do they really work or are they just a scam?

How to Decorate Your Breakfast Cereal

Instead of having your ordinary cheerios and milk, try adding these extra ingredients to really liven up your breakfast.

What's your morning routine?

Doing just a few small exercises when you get right out of bed could make a big difference.

Lose Weight and Gain Muscle at the Same Time?

For those of you who want to lose weight but add muscle mass, here's the most effective way to do it.

Mr. Healthy's Power Breakfast

Here's a breakfast recipe that will give you plenty of energy, nutrients, and keep you full.

Squats are one of the easiest ways to burn calories.

Getting wasted will dehydrate you and rob your body of nutrients.

Salad dressing sabotages your low-calorie salad.